Passport Funding and Special Services at Home

Passport Funding is a funding program by the Ontario Government in order to help young adults with developmental disabilities who are too old to continue attending school to access community support.  Once a person with developmental disabilities turns 21 years of age, they are no longer eligible to attend classes within the education system; and given that there are not a lot of programs available for young adults, once they age out of the school system, they end up staying at home with no financial resources to access staffing or community based programs to give structure and meaning to their work week.

The Ministry of Community and Social Services website has a concise explanation of what the Passport program  covers:

With Passport funding, individuals and families can:

• receive money directly so they can purchase their own services and supports
• get services and supports through community-based agencies
• get services and supports through a combination of both.

Who can apply for Passport Funding

Passport funding is for people with a developmental disability who:

• are no longer in school
• need support to participate in the community
• live independently with family or in supportive living, such as a group home.

Where to apply for Passport Funding

 For the past two years Passport Funding has been frozen as a result of the amalgamation of the Special Services at Home program into the Passport Funding program.  In this fiscal year (April 2013 - March 2014) everyone who was already receiving funding from either Special Services at Home or the Passport program had their funding renewed.  There were no increases, no chance to make any changes.  So if you were already part of either one of these programs then you are lucky.

Lots of people, in the meantime, have been in limbo.  Unable to apply for funding and unclear about when the new Passport Program will be open to taking new applications.  At the time of the writing of this post: there have been no memos to staff on the front lines or letters to parents giving any updates or possible timelines for making the Passport Funding a living program again.

The best one can do is to call the Developmental Services Ontario (DSO) office (see my previous post about the DSO here) and ask for a re-assessment if you or your loved ones situation demands additional funding.  The DSO will meet with you, make their assessment and then put you on the list of Passport Funding.

If you do not currently receive Passport funding, then you still should call the DSO and ask to be put on the list for an application for Passport Funding when this program is reactivated.  This the right thing to do only if you are already attached to the DSO or another agency as your lead agency, or, you have been assessed by the DSO for eligibility (that is, you or a loved one has been and diagnosed with having an developmental disability).

To access phone numbers for the DSO offices in Ontario follow this link

For the Toronto office of the DSO call 1-855-372-3858.

The Centralized Wait List

Toronto now has a centralized wait list system for people who have indicated that they need a residential placement (group home, supported independent living, etc.), a structured day setting of some sort (known as Community Participation Supports or day programs) and a need for a Family Services Worker (also known as a case manager, a case coordinator or other similar titles).  All the services which one can access through the centralized list are funded by the Ministry of Community and Social Services.

Toronto has long wait times for all of the above services.  This is because none or very few new spots are being funded in day programs or housing.  As people in the children's sector of developmental services become adults, they are assessed by the DSO and then put on the wait lists.  Additionally, when people with developmental delays move to Toronto, they are also placed on the wait lists.  The only way that spots in residential settings or day programs become available is either when a current resident/participant passes away or if they move out of town or, in the case of day programs, they quit attending.

The centralized wait list was known as the Resday list.  It is now known as the Community Needs List (CNL).  Fortunately, when it comes to housing, the List is prioritized based on a client's needs and not on a first-come-first-served basis.  This means that a person who is living with his elderly parents could be somewhere in the middle of the list for a long time.  However, if his elderly parents passed away tomorrow, there is a way for the list to take this changed situation and need into account and consequently, the person's name would move towards the top of the list.  So the needier a client is for supports, the higher their name goes on the list.  This is a simplified explanation of the wait list system because it is only a part of the equation which matches an individual to a residential or day program opening.

The other side of the equation is that, not only does a client have to have a demonstrated need for a placement, but a client must also be a good match for the spot that has opened up.  In other words, putting a client who is vulnerable by virtue of being confined to a wheelchair and being non-verbal, in a group home with one or more aggressive clients would not be a good match as it would leave the person in the wheelchair open to being the target of aggression.

In order to make the matching of clients to vacancies as fair as possible, there is a scoring system or matrix which assigns a certain number to each relevant piece of information in the client's personal profile which informs the List.

In order to check the details of a profile or to update information of a profile, a person needs to call their lead agency and ask for their, or the profile of the person under their care, to be updated.  Keeping the information on the profile which informs the list up-to-date is the job of the lead agency.  Most agencies probably don't get around to updating this profile as often as they should due to a large number of clients for whom they are responsible and a shortage of staff to complete such a large task.  So, it is better for you or a family member to update the profile with the help of your lead agency once a year or when a significant change takes place.